This Olympics was very frustrating for our family. We decided that we would be willing to pay a little extra to be able to watch the Olympics together as a family. But, we didn’t get to watch hardly any of it!
After some Google searches, I found that Sling TV was one of the best options to stream the Olympics. I read that we needed Sling Blue to get NBC Channels, which was $25 a month. I thought it was worth it to pay for a month.
The problem is that NBC is only offered in certain areas. Our area isn’t one of them. We were able to get NBCSN, which included some of the Olympic coverage, but it didn’t include the main stuff we wanted to see. We missed the opening ceremony. NBCSN didn’t seem to cover the figure skating. The commercials were long and horribly repetitive. Sling TV wasn’t very reliable and would buffer. I looked into YouTube TV, but as I understand it, it didn’t matter which company we used, our zip code wouldn’t include NBC.
NBC supposedly live-streamed everything, but you have to have a Cable subscription, and you have to provide the login to be able to watch it on their website. We’ve found that Cable TV doesn’t hold enough value for us to pay for it every month. I wasn’t interested in trying to get a cable box and pay for a month of cable.
I don’t think NBC gets it. Surely, I am not the only one who has ditched the Cable. Netflix and Amazon Prime allow us to watch TV when we want to watch it, not when the TV company schedules it. For us, these streaming services have as much or more content that we would watch. This Internet age allows me to watch when I want and where I want with a reasonable price. NBC is still back in the old age.
To me, the Olympics is about bringing everyone together in a peaceful, competitive platform. Even countries with no snow like the Kingdom of Tonga could compete in Winter sports. Even differences were set aside long enough for North Korea to join. Does it fit to have broadcasting limited to only allow regions of people in the US to watch or only those who can afford Cable?
According to AdWeek, NBC was forecast to make $900 million from advertising. Would it really have reduced ad revenue to have opened the streaming up to anyone?
The Olympic Committee has given broadcast rights to NBC through 2032. So, do we have to put up with this for another 14 years? At least after that, could we get a company that can include a wider audience? What about YouTube or something like that?
Does anyone else feel the same way? Am I offbase? Please comment.
1 Comment
Gary Ni · March 6, 2018 at 6:17 am
I agree with you absolutely. But while they don’t pay the athletes the Olympics is one giant money-making machine. Your sentiments are correct, but they’re in it for the money.
Gary